Thursday, September 15, 2011

The kids are currently working on food chains, food webs and energy pyramids in Mr. Lane and Mrs. Atwater's science classes.

Today we did an activity that helped us better understand how much animals within a food chain depend on producers for energy, even if not directly. This is called "the 10% rule" where 10% of the food we eat goes to fuel our growth and the remaining 90% goes to fuel our energy.

We had so much fun building these visual representations and now all of us have a better understanding of what biomass is.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

I am super excited about the newest way to share information with students: social bookmarking! You've heard of social networks (such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter). This website, Delicious, allows you bookmark websites and then share those with others who may be interested!

I have created a school account for myself that you can access whether you are a member or not. You can access my bookmarks at: http://www.delicious.com/mrs_stevens You can also access my bookmarks at the bottom of this page.

I have already bookmarked several websites that are related to our current science research projects. My hope is that by accessing these bookmarks, students will have an easier time locating reliable websites about topics we are studying in school.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

This coming Monday is the first day of Club Ed for the 2011-2012 school year! As one of the facilitators of Club Ed, I highly encourage students to attend to get extra support in the classes they may be struggling in.

Just for fun, here are the top ten reasons I recommend students come to Club Ed:

10. You get to hang out with some of your favorite teachers (and if they aren’t your teachers, you’ll wish they were!)

9. You don’t have to fight anyone to use the library computers.

8. It’s the only time that you are allowed to eat in the library.

7. You get a snack…and it’s free!

6. We have everything you need to get your work done from pencils to graph paper, calculators to notebooks.

5. It’s a great way to avoid homework lunch!

4. You get to hang out after school for an extra hour so that you don’t have to go home and babysit.

3. You can ride the activity bus home and your chances of getting to sit in the back are pretty good!

2. The pools are closed so what are you really missing out on?

And the number one reason to attend Club Ed…

1. All the cool kids are doing it!So check us out every Monday and Wednesday from 2:50-3:50!Hope to see you there!

The 2011-2012 school year is officially underway and we started off the year strong with a great first day! I enjoyed meeting all of the students and putting faces and names together for the first time!

If you are checking this blog, chances are you have received a copy of your parent letter as well as an IEP preference sheet:

I have already received several of these sheets back. If you haven't had a chance to fill this form out, I'm asking students to return them to me by next Friday. This will help me better communicate with each of you as well as work with your schedules to set up IEP conferences when the time comes. If you have misplaced this form, please let me know and I will send a new one home with your student.

I'm very excited about our upcoming school year and looking forward to working with you and your 8th grader!